Sub $130 SSD?

[ProDigit10]

Hi,

I would like to buy an SSD for the operating system. I've had my eye mostly on these drives:

- Crucial RealSSD C300 2.5" 64GB
- OCZ Vertex 2 2.5" 60GB SATA II MLC
- Corsair Force 2.5" 60GB SATA II

It's for a SATA2 connection upgraded core i5 2500k processor (which I still need to buy; I'm buying all the parts separate at the same time somewhere begin to mid march, and just do some research right now before buying).

I've tried keeping updated with graphs, and forums, but there's so much information on SSD's, and the landscape is constantly changing, which makes it a little difficult to track which drives are best.
On top of that, most drives reviewed and benched are the larger drives (128-512GB drives), which not accurately describe the same drives of lower capacities.

I'm only interested to boot my Windows 7 64bit fast, have a snappy performance, low power consumption.
I seldom write large files to my HD/SSD, and could not care less if copying a file in the background takes 20 or 30 seconds. I only care about snappy response, and fast boot times of both os and programs.

Your advise?

(BTW power consumption of a few mW difference makes little sense, I just want a drive that does not consume more than a regular HD, or at least not utilizes twice the power of the other drives in the selection.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

If you are purchasing an Intel Sandy Bridge cpu, then you will also be purchasing a new P67 series motherboard with an Intel 1155 cpu socket. Those motherboards are equipped with SATA III (6 Gb/s) and USB 3.0 ports. That narrows your choice down to a Crucial C300 ssd.

If you are in the USA, then check newegg.com every day for sale prices. They've had some sales on ssd's and they tend to be the smaller capacity drives. Don't forget to check their email specials. You can find that link on the left hand side of the newegg.com home page.

Here is a link to the two Crucial CS300, 64 Gb, SATA III (6 Gb/s) 2.5 inch, ssd's for desktop pc's at Newegg:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100008120%2050001455%20600038519%20600038477%20600038463&IsNodeId=1&name=2.5%22

 

[ProDigit10]

can anyone else affirm this choice?

 

[LordConrad]

JohnnyLucky is correct. Of the drives you listed, only the Crucial RealSSD supports SATA III. By the time you are ready to buy, some of the next generation SSDs should be out, and many of them will have SATA III also.

 

[ProDigit10]

Ok, thanks,
Perhaps I'll repost or revisit the forum then, it seems I can better hold out a bit on buying a drive.
Is there anything known of the latency of these drives compared to the sata connector? I understand the data rates are higher, and presume latencies to be lower.

 

[LordConrad]

Data rates are higher with newer controllers, but this may be offset a bit when 25nm NAND takes hold. OCZ started using 25nm NAND chips with current generation controllers (Vertex 2 drives) and performance went down.

 

[CurrentUser]

I have Windows 7 x64 installed on a cheap($85) Kingston 64gb SSD. I have it velcroed in an internal floppy drive slot in my case. Not the best specs, but I can't tell the difference between a blink of an eye and a half of a blink of an eye. For additional high speed storage I have a small striped volume on two regular hard drives. I find the speeds of a striped volume on the outer tracks of a couple of 7200 rpm drives comparable to SSD at a much cheaper price.

 

[wayneepalmer]

Over at Buy.com there is a Kingston 128 SSD on sale for $139

 

[Tom92602]

The Crucial C300 64GB is the best choice today if you have 6Gbs Sata.
No question. A far better choice than Vertex2 which has issues with
performance degradation when in used state.

But I would wait 2-3 weeks to see if Crucial's new M4 64GB SDD is close to
your price range since it should be even better.

 

[ProDigit10]

I definitely keep on revisiting this thread to keep on being updated about the latest!

 

[JohnnyLucky]

Vendors have placed orders for the new Crucial C400. They are expecting them to arrive in about 3 to 4 weeks. They also have to wait for Crucial to release them. That means they probably will not be available for purchase until the latter part of next month.

Despite the 25nm NAND, the new controller and several other improvements are expected to result in a 20% increase in performance over the equivalent C300 models. I am not sure what the result will be for real life programs and applications.

This morning Patriot announced they will be offering a new series of ssd's equipped with a new SandForce 2100 series controller. They expect to release the drives during the second quarter of this year - sometime during the April to June time frame.

 

[ProDigit10]

usually a shrink in die size for the flash drives means a slower speed, but better power consumption. For me they are fast enough anyway.
I don't know much about the c400, but I'm looking at a budget or entry model, that does not cost too much.
Worst case the prices of the c300 would go down when they arrive.

 

[ProDigit10]

It seems I revisit my thread once again!
I saw most $130 drives are now sold for under $100, with the arrival of the 6gbps sata drives!

I'm still a bit early, but I suspect there is no sub $130 SSD drive out there yet, with the fast speeds, right?

Actually I don't really need it, I just need to boot the OS and programs fast. On a HD it'd take me 3 minutes, on a Sata2 connector (150MB/s) with 80/60MB/s it takes me less than a minute.
It makes little difference to me if my os boots at 35 seconds instead of 42.

Still it's good for me that the prices keep on going down for the SSD's.
I just hope they will keep on selling 32 and 64GB SSD's. Otherwise they'd force us to pay over $200 just to get in on an SSD!

 

[ssddx]

i'm using a sata ii ocz vertex 2 and boot times are about 20 seconds. its a sata ii drive plugged into a sata iii socket, meaning that the slots revert back to sata ii for compatability.